Northern Michigan doctors convene in Lansing to oppose physician tax

Several Northern Michigan physicians drove to Lansing Tuesday to tell lawmakers not to tax physicians in Michigan.

The House of Representatives passed a 3 percent tax on physicians' gross receipts on Oct. 6 to help make up for holes in the state budget, primarily for Medicaid. The White Coat Rally drew close to 1,000 physicians to oppose the physician tax.

Dr. Matthew Visconti of Visconti Vein and Imaging said it's unfair to single out physicians who already are subsidizing "the broken" Medicaid program.

"I'm happy to help but Medicaid is a society-wide program that needs a society-wide ?x. The responsibility can't be solely borne by physicians. Will teachers be taxed to fill gaps in education funding, will police officers have to fund jails? This tax is unfair," he said.

Visconti said with many practices already finding it hard to recruit new physicians, the tax would further exacerbate the problem.

"This tax would discourage new physicians from setting up practice in Michigan because they won't be able to afford the taxes. If this tax passes, it would be a third tax on Michigan physicians who already pay income tax and small business tax. Michigan would be the third state to discourage physicians from practicing in the United States," he said.

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Dr. Loyal Jodar, an orthopedic surgeon with Bay Street Orthopedics in Petoskey, said the bill will cause more problems for the state than it will help.

"We made the trip to Lansing to demonstrate, along with more than 900 physicians, that the bill is very discriminatory and that we strongly oppose it," Jodar said.

Jodar said the problem is that much of the revenue from the state was generated by the auto industry and that the state cannot function as it has in the past.

"The logic behind this bill is faulty and it will not help the problem. The tax should be spread out over the entire community," he said. "The big problem is that the state has to completely overhaul the spending program. What this is going to do is drive doctors out of the state and/or make recruiting impossible. The bottom line is that this is a Band-Aid that will not work."

Liz Boyd, Gov. Jennifer Granholm's press secretary, said the governor is very supportive of the fee.

"Everyone knows that Medicaid rates really aren't adequate," Boyd said. "The Quality Assurance Assessment Program will help bring significant federal Medicaid funds to Michigan. Those additional dollars will be used to increase Medicaid rates and the program will make the reimbursement rates equal to those of Medicare."

Boyd said the governor thinks it's important to leverage every dollar the state can from the federal government. The office estimates that the program could bring more than $700 million.

"From our perspective this is a win-win. If a physician sees more Medicaid patients, he/she is going to benefit from the program. And in these very tough times we are seeing more and more people relying on Medicaid and we want to make certain those people have access to health care.

"This is all about encouraging physicians to see more Medicaid patients," she continued. "Perhaps the dialog at the capital served a purpose so that we can ultimately draw down federal dollars from Washington, increase access to health care for the poor and adequately reimburse physicians for their services."

The bill has passed the state House and is now in committee in the Senate.